As the boys were with their Dad for a long weekend we packed up our bags and the baby, as you do, and headed out to deepest, darkest Wiltshire.  I would have blogged about it sooner but I’m having some technical difficulties (my laptop power supply is dead again grrrrr) and I wanted to share some of my photos with you.  That’s also not to mention my tumble dryer not drying and the vacuum cleaner not cleaning.

Anyhoo, we went to Avebury on Saturday to see the standing stones.  We had no idea there were dowsing tours around the stones when we got there – it was only after we’d bought some (more) rods (copper – very nice) that we noticed the sign.  We’d missed the start by 50 minutes and as it’s only an hour we decided we’d need to come back.

Brand new, unused dowsing rods resting on a bag covered in chocolate brownie crumbs…

If you wondered where the brownie went you’ll find the evidence in the museum in the guise of a caveman:

And here she is again.  This time helping a stone to stay vertical:

And this is when she’d finished stone hugging (wonder where she got that idea from? lol)

It was our first time at Avebury and it’s fantastic.  There’s everything there to keep me interested for ages – standing stones, ley lines, haunted pub, museum, long barrows, a Saxon church, a strange hill and a manor house (with ghosts).

This is Avebury Manor which has a long and interesting history.  It sits on the site of an Abbey but this house is *only* 16th century!

There are several ghosts which are said to reside here.  There’s a cavalier, a white lady and a ghostly coach complete with horses.

In the gardens there’s a pet cemetery.  This gravestone caught my eye:

We walked to West Kennet barrow which is an ancient burial site and you can actually go into it.

I’m not sure what happened with this photo.  I took it standing in the entrance with flash on – I can’t explain the blue light or orb.

This is Silbury Hill which is the largest man made hill in Europe.  No one knows its purpose even after several excavation attempts.  Archeaologists thought it was a burial mound but there’s no proof yet.

Not too far away from Avebury is the Uffington white horse which stands carved on the hillside behind dragon hill (so named because it’s reputedly the sight Sir George slay the dragon).  We had to walk up the hill with the sheep to reach it and only then did we realise you couldn’t really see it all from the top of the hill.

This is my best shot – horse’s eye and dragon hill in the background:

To top off our travels we stopped by Southampton Old Cemetery one evening to take a twilight stroll.  What better way to end the weekend!